act consultingThe Act! product was officially retired on 9/15/23. Apparently, a lot of existing Act! Pro customers either didn’t receive the message or don’t want to believe the message as I am being bombarded with questions from existing Act! Pro users.

Keep in mind that Act! Pro had a “perpetual” license which meant that you could continue to use your copy of Act! Pro year after year without further payment. With the retirement of Act! Pro there is no longer a way to purchase an Act! Perpetual License. Period.

Ninety percent of the inquiries I receive about Act! Pro contain the same exact messaging:

  • I’m a long time Act! user
  • I refuse to pay an annual subscription
  • I don’t want to move to the “cloud”
  • I want a product that looks and works just like Act!.

Sorry folks, I can’t help you. Act! is over 35 years old; the newer CRM products are all pretty much web-based. And they don’t look like Act!. And they carry an annual subscription. And no, I don’t happen to have a few boxes of Act! Pro lying around; in fact, it’s probably been over 10 years since Act! was sold “in a box.”

So what are the alternatives? I can think of three:

  • Move to something like HubSpot or SalesForce. They are both extremely well known. Just remember that you will be paying approximately ten times the cost of Act!. You will have to pay to convert your data over and it doesn’t look like Act!.
  • Move to Zoho. It has more functionality that either Hubspot or SalesForce at a fraction of the price. Zoho pricing runs from $84 – 444/user/year depending on the level of service you chose. Again, Zoho doesn’t work just like Act! although it can be made to look just like Act! if you are will to pay for some additional programming.
  • Sign up for an Act! Premium Desktop  or an Act Premium Cloud subscription. Yes, you will have to pay a yearly fee but I often have access to great sales and discounted pricing. And yes, the Act! Premium Desktop product looks and feels exactly like the Act! you are accustomed to. And you won’t have to pay to convert your database.

Need help in deciding what to do?  Tech Benders is here to help! Send us an email with your questions!